Help me build speaker cables please!

@toddverrone - "Bad-Ass" - I likes it! Maybe I’ll post a new cable on my blog - "The Bad-Ass Helix" (LOL)

If it were me, the decision would be down to - bi-wiring or bi-amp-ing?

For the former...

- I would elect for the simple approach and forget about bi-wire cables, since I never found they provide any benefit once you get a good pair of conductors to jumper the bi-wire terminals.

- I did bi-wire my Tannoy’s, but as I said - once I replaced the brass jumpers I found two cables provided no benefit. It was wasted money - I used identical wires.

- and to quote you...

but I also went from blue jeans twisted pair 12 awg to my braided CAT 5, which has a combined 9 awg. So I’m not sure if it was the biwiring or all the other differences that improved the sound.

I think it was due to the differences between the two cables (i.e. copper quality, gauge and geometry) - rather than the effect of a bi-wire approach that accounts for the improvements.

- you could reduce the "bad-ass" design to have one neutral and split it at both ends - makes it much simpler to implement.

For the latter...

- I would still opt for separate cables - mainly because I do not know what the combined cable will do to the sound.

I agree - it would be interesting to try the "bad-ass" cables - just to see if there is any advantage - but without verification the only advantage right now is - you would only have one cable per speaker as opposed to two.

You can still implement the kinked signal conductor, since it is pretty easy to do and has minimal impact on the length of the signal conductor, but again, without verification, who knows if it is worth the additional effort.

I just wish I had the time and funds to try all of this stuff out - you don’t know of any audio benefactors do you :-)

BTW - on my A/V system, the brittleness has now subsided and getting smoother by the day :-) It’s as though someone turned on a light switch - you notice it instantly one day you turn the system on, then a couple of days later - it’s gone - very weird!

As always - keep me posted - cos I’m really enjoying the exchange of thoughts - it keeps my mind agile :-)

Cheers

Well, I've already purchased everything for the biwire.. 

But yeah, I hear you, it would be great to be able to test all these designs. It wouldn't​ be too expensive to do in regular copper, I just lack the time. 

So, you really think the twisted signals and combined neutrals could contaminate one another, even though they're carrying the same signal? I could see that the speaker crossovers would cause different frequencies to flow in the cables differently, I just figured it was the same signal so it shouldn't impact phase.. though now that I'm thinking about it more, I'd imagine the current flowing through the neutrals would be less aligned than the signal...

@toddverrone - re...

So, you really think the twisted signals and combined neutrals could contaminate one another, even though they’re carrying the same signal?

Well let me explain my thinking...
- the voltage applied to the two sets of terminals is identical
- the tweeter x-over circuit allows the high frequencies to pass
- the woofer allows the low frequencies to pass
- each driver draws different current down the related conductors at those different frequencies 
- The intensity of the magnetic field is directly proportional to the current present

So my answer to your question is - Yes, because they are not carrying the same current, different levels of noise will be induced into each conductor and noise contamination will prevail.

You could probably get a similar, or better result if you either
1. separate the two conductors by placing each one into a couple of pieces of expandable sleeve to increase the space between them
2. braiding the two conductors with a piece of cord of the same thickness (DO NOT use a piece of unconnected wire because it really complicates things)

The neutral conductors may not impact the sound at all

Here’s a good article - look at conductive and inductive coupling
http://www.siemon.com/us/white_papers/02-03-22-emi.asp

If you twist the cables together you then have to consider capacitive coupling.

Hope that - helps ?

Regards...

I’m back. And have finished, mostly, my cables. I missed your last post before building them, so I ended up doing the kinky signal, counter rotating helixes. Unfortunately, the signals became less kinky as I worked with the neutrals, so, if these don’t live up to my expectations, I’ll be taking out the signal conductors and putting a few layers of techflex on them. As it stands, though, the signals are not uniformly laid next to one another, so hopefully that works out for me. One thing that I keep thinking about in regards to the signal.. if it was one run of cable, wouldn’t the worries over noise be the same? Or would that not be an issue because it’s full signal, and the jumpers would only be susceptible​ to induction?

I’ll post some pics on my system page.. I still need to put connectors on the second cable before I listen. Hopefully I’ll have more to report with regards to sound tomorrow.

So far, they did superb! The same black background as the single helix with cat 5, but more clarity from top to bottom. There's not more bass, it's just a bit tighter and clean. The mids and highs have greater clarity and come further out from the background, with a better separation of sounds. 

I'm very happy with them. They aren't too bright or brittle sounding, which I was afraid of. I'm interested to hear if/how they change. I've neve noticed burn in before, so we'll see..